7 Reasons Why Meditation Will Make You Happier and More Successful

How You Can Become More Effective by Giving Yourself Some Quiet Time

The practice of meditation is becoming more widely accepted as a way to become happier, healthier and more successful in life.

While meditation has been around for centuries, over the past few decades, it has become as an essential practice for a better quality life.

The practice of meditation is about learning to be more present in any situation. It is about separating ourselves from any attachments we may have, whether that’s our thoughts or emotions, and focus only on the present moment.

The objective of having a meditation practice is to learn how to quieten our minds. As we have anywhere between 50,000 to 60,000 thoughts per day, by learning how to meditate, we allow ourselves to become better at deciding which thoughts to give attention to and which ones to let go.

When I first started meditating over a decade ago, I initially found myself dozing off to sleep so I thought meditation was a waste of time. The reality was I hadn’t been getting enough sleep so my body responded accordingly in order to get the sleep it needed to function well. Over the years, I have experienced the benefits of meditation and it is now an essential practice in my life.

As meditation is all about quietening our minds, it all starts with being able to control our breathing better. Oftentimes, when we’re under stress, without even realising it, our breathing tends to become shorter and shallower, which does not help us be at our best.

When we focus on longer, deeper breaths, and make breathing our only focus for a period of time, we automatically feel lighter, more present, and more empowered to deal with anything that comes up for us.

Here are seven reasons why having a regular meditation practice can help us become happier and a lot more successful.

It will enhance your creativity. Having a meditation practice is like building a muscle. The more we use it, the stronger it will become. When we meditate regularly, we become open to let new ideas to flow through us. Those ideas can help us become better problem solvers, which in turn, will make us more creative.

It will expand your perception. When we make ourselves be quiet and still, it is an opportunity to reflect on things that may be going on in our lives. That often allows us to look at things from different points of view. As we expand our perception, we will have a greater level of clarity around what matters most to us in life.

It will help you be more effective. With a greater level of awareness and perception, we will be a lot more selective in what to give our focus and attention to. This will lead to less distraction, greater levels of productivity and better performance.

It will reduce stress or anxiety. Just being able to focus on our breathing for a specified period of time will help us become more relaxed. The key is to make it a regular practice, ideally daily. It can be as simple as focusing on our breathing for five minutes, three times a day.

It will improve your decision-making ability. When we are more relaxed and have a greater level of clarity, we are bound to make decisions from an empowered state rather than from a disempowered state. As making good decisions is also a skill that can be developed, the more we meditate, the better decisions we will make.

It will accelerate your results. In his book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey explains the concept of “sharpening the saw.” Rather than continuously pushing through in order to achieve the results we want, it’s more effective to take time out regularly to reflect and readjust, which is what sharpening the saw means. The more often we can reflect, the quicker we can adjust, which will speed up the achievement of the results we want.

It will improve your emotional well-being. Having lower stress, less anxiety, and greater levels of concentration will make us mentally stronger, which will ultimately have positive benefits on our mental and emotional well-being. When we’re in a healthy emotional state, we are more likely to operate from our best self consistently.

The great thing about meditation is that it can be started right away. While there are many free resources available online on how to meditate, the quickest and simplest way to get started is to close our eyes for a few minutes and just focus on our breathing. The more we do it, the easier it will become, and soon enough, we will start noticing the difference it makes to our lives.

Action Step: If you don’t currently have a meditation practice, select a time to meditate for the next seven days. It can be as short as five minutes. If you already have a meditation practice, consider encouraging someone in your life who doesn’t meditate to try it out.

Question: What is another reason why meditation will make you happier and more successful?